USA oater ends up at Boot Hill

Series started out with a bang, but auds soon deserted

By JOHN DEMPSEY

NEW YORK -- The USA Network has canceled its tongue-in-cheek Western series "Peacemakers," with Tom Berenger, after playing off the nine episodes it had produced.

"Peacemakers" started out with a bang in a special 90-minute premiere on July 30, chalking up 5.2 million total viewers -- one of the highest-rated debuts of a scripted series in the history of basic cable.

But in the weeks that followed, the audience began deserting the show in its Wednesday-at-10 time period. Even toward the end of the firstrun cycle, lots of viewers were still tuning in to "Peacemakers," but too many were over 50, the demographic that Madison Avenue is least interested in.

Berenger played a federal marshal in the late 19th century West who was having trouble adjusting to new law-enforcement techniques such as fingerprinting, as pushed by his young Yale-trained Pinkerton colleague (played by Peter O'Meara).

Michael R. Joyce Prods. produced "Peacemakers." The show listed four executive producers: Charlie Craig, Rick Ramage, Rick Wallace and Larry Carroll.